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I have promised myself (and my husband) that I will finish at least three works in progress this week before I start my next project. I got them all out to see what I should crack on with and oh my gosh, there is definitely more than I thought….

Every year I make the now husband a valentines day card (apart from last year as I forgot). Luckily this year I remembered before I start the dreaded 3 Day Valentines Shift at work so I’ve been making my card today and trying out the new sewing machine. Everyone’s a winner.

All I did was try out a few stitches on a piece of calico. I used black on cream which I think worked really well but you could do all sorts of colours. Cut out a heart shape, stuck it on a bit of card, got out the trusty stamp kit and card made. It’s actually quite sweet and took no time at all.

Today this arrived all the way from America….I won the birthday competition on Ray’s Sew Crafty’s blog, you should check it out. I’ve never attempted cross stitch before so this will be exciting. Hopefully it will be finished before we move house (we haven’t even found one yet so I think I have enough time) and it will be the first picture to go in Sausage Baby’s new room.

I found the perfect project for that lovely wool I didn’t know what to knit with it. This monkey was a pattern I found in “Baby and Toddler Knits” (read my review here) and I still have plenty of the wool left. Hurray!

You should definitely give this little chap a go. He was really quite easy and took next to no time.

As the autumn is drawing in and the rain is starting to fall, this week I have been thinking about pullovers, scarves and hats. I found this pattern a while ago and saved it in my “to-do” folder. It is the cutest little 1920’s inspired turban. I absolutely love Pickles, the company it is from. Their patterns are beautiful and the colours they use are delicious. I just wish they printed their book in English. You can find their patterns free in the internet though. It’s taken me a bit longer than planned as initially I followed the pattern exactly and ended up with a really long sausage hat so had to start again. I think I must have used the wrong sized needle. Now it’s finished, I’m so pleased with it as Sausage baby looks so incredibly cute in it and coral is definitely her colour.

Sorry its been a while since i’ve actually made anything but this latest project has taken a good few days. I’ve stupidly got a few projects on the go that I’m into and want to get finished. I find the more you make, the more inspired you get to make more, it’s brilliant!!

Well here it is, the Baby Gym.

We had been looking for a baby gym for a while now as Sausage baby is at that stage where she is interested in her surroundings and grabbing out. We went to Toys R Us with high hopes but left with nothing, sorry Toys R Us but it was all too plasticy and information overload with flashing lights and spinning things and with a price tag to match. I searched the internet for the sort of thing we were after but again everything was overpriced when I thought I could do better. I went onto trusty eBay to find a cheap baby gym I could take apart and as luck would have it, someone was selling just the frame with no dangly bits (hehe) for just £6.

It arrived and I instantly cracked on…

The Bee:

Start by cutting 6 oval shapes – I should have found a pattern for this as it didn’t turn out quite like I expected but in the end it all worked out.

Add stripes making sure they are in the same position on each oval piece.

Sew the edges together, turn right side out and stuff – I didn’t worry too much about how they joined at the ends as I knew i’d be covering them so when I turned it right side out, I had holes at both ends.

Cut wing shapes, sew together leaving a gap to turn right side out and stuff.

Cut a PacMan shaped piece to make a cone and sew onto the bum of the bee to make a sting.

Cut a circle/oval out of some felt and create a face – I sewed a zig zag patter around the edge, added a mouth and eyes and using felt tip, gave him rosy cheeks.

Add a piece of ribbon to the back ensuring its in a position where the bee will hang nicely. Add a hoop and button on the end, you can see this technique in my Car Seat Toy Bar post.

Now the Buterfly:

Cut out a body shape and wing shapes, sew together and turn right side out.

Stuff the wings and sew the hole up, also pinch the back slightly and sew together so that the wings bend slightly.

sew on the body, stuff it and sew up the hole – I didn’t do it this way around, I stuffed both pieces and then sewed them together and it was quite tricky.

Stick buttons all over the wings – I glue gunned them on but you should probably sew them for safety.

Make a face similar to the bee, dont’ forget antennae.

attache a ribbon again as you did with the bee.

Make some dangly bits using ribbon and beads, similar to the Toy Bar project. I sewed a button on one end of the ribbon, threaded the beads on then made the hoop and button attachment on the other end of the ribbon.